groan.
“Oh my God. Did she tell you?”
“No. She lied too. You both did. For three years.”
“You were on location. She was helping me get organized a few months after we started, before I moved in, when I was staying here one weekend. I thought it was very nice of her to help. We drank a lot of wine one night, and don’t ask me how, but I wound up in bed with her, which was the dumbest thing I ever did. I talked to her about it the next day, and she wouldn’t let me off the hook. She blackmailed me and said that if I tried to get out of it, she would tell you. I was in love with you, and I didn’t want to lose you. For three miserable years I let her threaten me into meeting her twice a week. They were the worst three years of my life. I never loved her. I just didn’t know how to get out of it without blowing my life apart. She kept threatening me that she’d tell you if I stopped. And then Angela came along, and somehow I got out of it with Brigitte, and I called her bluff. But I fell in love with Angela, and now I love you both. I don’t blame you if you hate me, but honestly, Tallie, I love you and I don’t know what to do.” She had never seen anyone unravel as quickly as he did. But there was no excuse for what he’d done with Angela or Brigitte, even if what he said about her assistant was true. After all that she had learned that afternoon, anything was possible now. But if what he said was correct, he’d slept with Brigitte almost right from the beginning of his affair with Tallie.
“Will you give Angela up?” Tallie asked him in a strong, clear voice that surprised them both, and he stood there staring at her with a devastated expression, unable to answer.
“She wants to have our baby,” he said in a strangled voice finally.
“And what do you want? Angela or me? You can’t have us both. You’ve cheated on me for four years, Hunt, the whole time we’ve been together. I don’t know if I could ever trust you again. Probably not.” And then she surprised herself. “I might be willing to try, but you would have to swear to me to give her up.”
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked at Tallie, and they both knew the truth before he even answered. “I can’t,” he said softly. “I can’t do that to her. Not now.”
“And if she weren’t having the baby?”
“I don’t know. I love her and her little boy… and you. Christ, what a fucking disaster this is,” he said as he sat down hard in one of the kitchen chairs and slammed the refrigerator door. “Why did you go to a detective?” He was angry at her, but more so at himself.
“Because of the money, and the hotel bills. You told Victor you went to those hotels with me, and it was a lie. Everything was a lie,” she said, sobbing again. And all she wanted to do was turn the clock back. But she couldn’t turn it back far enough. He had cheated on her the whole time, and if what he had said about Brigitte was true, it was yet another nightmare that she had to deal with too. She had lost two of the people she loved most.
“I’m not stealing your money,” he said in a rough voice.
“I know. I believe you. But you lied about everything else. Our whole life together was a lie. You cheated on me the whole time.”
“I didn’t mean to,” he said weakly.
“But you did anyway. And now you don’t want to give this girl up. That tells me all I need to know. I’m not going to sit here, while you have an affair, and a baby, with someone else.”
“I understand,” he said in a dead voice. “What do you want me to do now?”
“If you won’t agree to stop seeing her, I want you to move out.” He nodded. What she really wanted was for him to love her and give up Angela, but she could see he wouldn’t. He was hooked. You could see in the pictures the way he looked at her. He hadn’t looked at Tallie that way in years. Or maybe ever.
“I never wanted it to be like this, and I didn’t want you to find out this way,” he said miserably.
“Then you should have told me.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“The private investigator did it for you. And I guess one picture is worth a thousand words.” She glanced at the photo of him kissing Angela and he winced.
“Tallie, I’m so sorry,” he said as he walked across the kitchen to her and tried to put his arms around her, as she pulled away from him.
“Don’t!” she said as she put a hand up to push him away. “Don’t make it worse than it is. I think a year of Angela and nearly three of Brigitte is enough, and you could have gotten out of that if you’d wanted to.”
“You don’t know what she’s really like. I didn’t want her spoiling everything for us.”
“You did anyway, and you went on sleeping with her for three years.” It was all hard to believe. And all the while she had thought she was happy at last and he was the best man in the world, while he cheated on her. “I’m not going to make the next movie with you, Hunt,” she added then, and he looked pained.
“Let’s not try to solve everything in one night.”
“There’s nothing to solve. If you’re staying with Angela, I’m done. And I’m not going to work with a man who did this to me, and who’s this dishonest.” He had proven that he had no integrity at all. He didn’t answer, he just sat looking at her with eyes full of embarrassment and despair. He had made a mess of everything, right from the beginning, and it had taken four years to come home to roost but it finally had. “I want you to move out now,” Tallie said in a choked voice. She didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t spend another night with him, in their bedroom, in the same bed, knowing that he was in love with another woman and having a child with her, even if he said he loved her too.
“I’ll get some things,” he said quietly. “I’ll come back for the rest when you’re in Palm Springs.”
“I’ll send them to you,” she said, as he walked toward her. He tried to reach out to her again, and she took a step back. Her eyes burned holes into his, and he could feel her pain searing through him. It made him realize what he’d done. He had Angela and their baby, but he realized then that Tallie had lost everything, and she looked bereft as he walked by. He had done a terrible thing, and he knew it. Brigitte had been evil and cunning, but he had been weak. And he should never have gotten involved with Angela either. He had gone to the hospital to see her, just to be nice to her, and the next thing he knew he was in love with her and never wanted to leave her or her son. But now it meant leaving Tallie. Whatever he did, someone was going to get hurt, or all of them. And the last thing he had wanted to do was hurt Tallie, which was why he had put it off for so long. And now it had exploded, and they’d all been blown to bits, and his life with Tallie was destroyed. But he didn’t want to stay with her either. He couldn’t leave Angela now, particularly not with their baby. He had no other choice. And he knew it as he went upstairs to pack.
He came back downstairs ten minutes later with a small bag in his hand. He had some clothes at Angela’s place anyway, and he could buy whatever he needed. He didn’t know what to say to Tallie as he stood looking at her from the doorway. Without a word, he went to put his arms around her, and she let him and broke into a wracking sob. He held her as long as he could before he made promises he knew he couldn’t keep, and then he gently let her go and walked out the door with tears running down his cheeks. He didn’t look back at her as he closed the door softly behind him, and a moment later she heard his car drive away, and she looked around her empty house sobbing. She didn’t know where to run from the pain or what to do. She just stood there crying, thinking about Hunt with Angela and their baby, and what Brigitte had done with him. She had been betrayed by them all.
Chapter 9
TALLIE CRIED HERSELF to sleep on Friday night, and she woke up on Saturday morning feeling as though she’d been on a two-week drunk. Every inch of her body ached, and her head hurt from crying. She could hardly get out of bed, and didn’t even want to. She walked downstairs to the kitchen, thinking about what the rest of her life would be like without Hunt. She worried that she had been hasty in her decision or reaction, and as she sat huddled over a cup of tea, she realized again that she’d had no other choice. He wouldn’t give up Angela and their baby, and he had cheated on her for all four years they’d been together. She would never have trusted him again. There had never been a time when he was faithful or honest with her. It was just too much to forgive. There had been no choice except for him to leave. But the emptiness she felt around her sucked the air out of her like a vacuum. Her life felt like a wasteland, and she knew that she would miss him. No matter how dishonest he had been, he had always been so sweet to her, and to Max, and she had loved living and working with him. She thought they were so
